The F-22 is the most advanced 5th generation platform in the world. I saw it up close while in the AF and had a chance to speak to some of the pilots while it was being tested against the F-15 at Edwards AFB. It is designed to operate against current next gen competitors like the latest MIG and the Mirage 2000 in situations where it is outnumbered 3:1. Even with that kind of numerical disadvantage the F-22 was designed to win without loss of aircraft.

i would love our military to have 250 f-22's and retire all those piece of shit f-16's that are out there. I would love even more to have a higher quality UAV that could keep our boys safe. I just think it's not as necessary as getting our boys back home and producing more jobs (that aren't as cyclical as government contracts).

just to be clear, i WANT more government spending. I just think that air to air combat should be a low priority this year.

Now if we could actually kill FCS the Pentagon could free up some serious dough. This is a very hard call to make. A lot of people feel that we are more or less done with Nation on Nation warfare, that we need to focus on COIN. But on the other hand we have China which is already to big for its britches. And who knows what Putin is doing with Russia.